Director, Applied AI

ROLE SUMMARY

As Director, Applied AI, you lead the realization of AI strategy into tangible, production-grade solutions, platforms, and products. You operate at the intersection of architecture, engineering, and product thinking — translating strategy, patterns, and standards into working systems deployed in real enterprise environments.

You own the end-to-end technical integrity of solutions — from concept through implementation — ensuring they are robust, scalable, and aligned with enterprise architecture and platform capabilities. You connect that build to business outcomes: you understand the commercial problem your work serves, not only the code. And you lead the people who build with you — full-time engineers, contractors, and vendor resources whose day-to-day execution you direct and whose work you review to Pfizer's quality and security bar.

Why This Role Matters

Pfizer's purpose — breakthroughs that change patients' lives — has always depended on the company's willingness to transform how it works, not only what it discovers. Being the most AI-forward company, and reinventing how we work from end to end, is the next chapter in that story. That depends on turning strategy into systems that actually work. This role ensures strategy and architecture become real, working solutions — deployable, integrated, and sustainable in production — and that the team and partners around you deliver to the same standard.

Candidate Profile

You are a hands-on technical leader with strong execution capability and architectural judgment. You operate across disciplines — architecture, engineering, and product — and drive solutions from ambiguous beginnings to production reality. You are known for enforcing technical truth: ensuring what is built is correct, complete, scalable, and aligned with enterprise systems. You can frame a technical decision in terms of the business outcome it serves, and you can lead a mixed team of engineers, contractors, and vendors to ship it.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

1)  Solution & Platform Realization  — Translate strategic intent and architectural patterns into working AI solutions and platforms. Own the end-to-end architecture and implementation shape of major solutions, ensuring they are production-ready, scalable, maintainable, and aligned with enterprise architecture.

2)  Technical Leadership & Hands-on Execution  — Lead technical design and execution across complex initiatives as architect, tech lead, and delivery driver. Contribute hands-on code where it accelerates delivery and de-risks execution, and guide teams through design decisions, implementation trade-offs, and integration challenges.

3)  Integration Ownership  — Ensure seamless integration across platforms and services, data systems, AI models, and business workflows — connecting models to real use cases, guardrails to runtime systems, and observability to operational feedback loops within enterprise constraints.

4)  Team & Vendor Leadership  — Lead and coordinate a delivery team of full-time engineers, contractors, and vendor resources. Direct day-to-day technical execution, review their work to Pfizer's quality and security bar, manage dependencies and throughput, and grow the capability of the people you lead.

5)  Technical Quality & Truth Enforcement  — Identify and challenge incomplete or fragile architectures, solutions that are not production-ready, and unrealistic assumptions. Enforce engineering discipline in scalability, observability, performance, and security so solutions meet enterprise quality and reliability standards.

6)  Business & Domain Translation  — Translate business problems into feasible, high-impact technical solutions, and communicate solution direction in terms of business and commercial outcomes. Provide grounded technical input into domain-level AI strategy.

QUALIFICATIONS

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required, advanced degree preferred.
• 10+ years or equivalent experience in software engineering, AI/ML, or architecture roles, with a strong delivery track record.
• Proven experience building production-grade AI/ML systems or platforms.
• Current hands-on coding ability and strong depth across at least 2–3 of: AI/ML and generative AI; system design / architecture; data engineering; cloud engineering.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical initiatives end-to-end.
• Experience leading or coordinating engineers, contractors, and vendors to deliver production systems.
• Ability to connect technical decisions to business and commercial outcomes.
• Experience operating in cross-functional, matrixed environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with LLMs, retrieval architectures, and AI agents; observability and monitoring; and AI governance and guardrails.
• Experience with Claude Code, Claude Enterprise, MCP development, and Claude Skill Development
• Prior role in biopharma TA role, epidemiology, or similar with hands-on real-world data experience
• Experience in enterprise-scale or regulated environments.
• Experience leading platform or large solution-development efforts.
• Familiarity with CI/CD, DevOps, and production operations.

ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Senior Director, Applied AI; product management, engineering, architecture, and delivery teams; program leaders; vendor and contractor partners.

 
Candidate demonstrates a breadth of diverse leadership experiences and capabilities including: the ability to influence and collaborate with peers, develop and coach others, oversee and guide the work of other colleagues to achieve meaningful outcomes and create business impact.
 

PHYSICAL/MENTAL REQUIREMENTS

Sitting, standing, walking, bending, ability to perform mathematical calculations and ability to perform complex data analysis on a computer

NON-STANDARD WORK SCHEDULE, TRAVEL OR ENVIRONMENT REQUIREMENTS

10-20% travel

Additional Job Information:

Work Location Assignment: Hybrid

The annual base salary for this position ranges from $176,600.00 to $294,300.00. In addition, this position is eligible for participation in Pfizer’s Global Performance Plan with a bonus target of 20.0% of the base salary and eligibility to participate in our share based long term incentive program. We offer comprehensive and generous benefits and programs to help our colleagues lead healthy lives and to support each of life’s moments. Benefits offered include a 401(k) plan with Pfizer Matching Contributions and an additional Pfizer Retirement Savings Contribution, paid vacation, holiday and personal days, paid caregiver/parental and medical leave, and health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage. Learn more at Pfizer Candidate Site – U.S. Benefits | (uscandidates.mypfizerbenefits.com). Pfizer compensation structures and benefit packages are aligned based on the location of hire. The United States salary range provided does not apply to Tampa, FL or any location outside of the United States. This role is posted in multiple locations. If you are applying for the role in an secondary job posting location where pay transparency regulations apply, your Talent Advisor will share the local pay information with you during the first interview.

Relocation assistance may be available based on business needs and/or eligibility.

Candidates must be authorized to be employed in the U.S. by any employer.

U.S. work visa sponsorship (such as TN, O-1, H-1B, etc.) is not available for this role now or in the future.

To learn more about acceptable and prohibited uses of AI during the recruitment process, please review our candidate AI-use guidelines available on Pfizer Careers.

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